Meta launched on Tuesday a personal artificial intelligence agent, Muse, for people 18 and over who are looking for help with day-to-day tasks like schedules, shopping and, in the company's words, turning “long-term goals into action plans.”
The parent company of Instagram and Facebook is stressing the safety and privacy features of the agent, which for now is only available in the U.S. Muse, Meta said, runs on a dedicated, secure virtual machine that houses both the agent and the user's data.
People can message the agent in a separate app, called Muse, or message it in WhatsApp. It can handle simple tasks like sending an email or booking travel, or bigger, long-term goals like creating a yearlong exercise plan or setting up a new business.
“Once a person shares a goal with Muse, it helps them develop a personalized plan and coordinate their time and resources, then advances the work on its own. It can open a browser, fill out forms, and negotiate on their behalf,” Meta said in a blog post.
Tech companies are touting AI agents as the next step after chatbots, which can answer questions and retrieve information but won't take action on the user's behalf.
At its most basic level, an AI agent works like a traditional, human-crafted computer program that executes a job, like launching an application. Combined with an AI large language model, however, it can search for knowledge that enables it to complete tasks without explicit, step-by-step instructions. That means, instead of just helping you draft the language of an email, it can theoretically handle the whole process — receiving a message from your coworker, figuring out what you might want to say, and firing off the response on its own.
For Meta, the agent fits into CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision of AI superintelligence that's available to “everyone.” He outlined his vision last month in a 6,500-word essay published online.
In the document derided by critics as fantastical, Zuckerberg said his company is working toward an era where everyone will have the tools to create new businesses, receive Ph.D.-level tutoring and provide personalized lifestyle tips.
“Everyone will have an exceptionally capable personal agent that understands you, your goals, and everything you care about. Your agent will work 24/7 on your behalf to improve your relationships, health, career, finances, home management, hobbies, and more,” Zuckerberg wrote. “It will free up time for the things you enjoy, and help you accomplish more than you could otherwise.”
The question is, will people actually use it?
FILE - A car passes Facebook's new Meta logo on a sign at the company headquarters on Oct. 28, 2021, in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)
CAIRO (AP) — An additional three dozen health facilities serving more than 400,000 people in Sudan are closing this year due to global aid cuts, worsening a dire humanitarian situation in a country torn by more than three years of war, aid groups said Tuesday.
The cuts come to a health care system that once numbered 6,500 primary healthcare facilities and 300 public hospitals, but that already was decimated in the first year and a half of war. By September 2024, the World Health Organization said that up to 70-80% of facilities in the worst-hit areas were either closed or barely functioning.
Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when tensions between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, escalated into full-scale fighting across the country. The war killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million and pushed parts of the country into famine.
More aid organizations are pulling out as clinics are left without necessary medicine or funding, forcing patients to face costly transportation and dangerous journeys to get treatment, said Doctors Without Borders, or MSF.
“These cuts are stripping away what little capacity remains, closing facilities, sending health workers home, and cutting off supply lines for medicines and nutrition treatment. The system is already stretched past its limit," said Mesfin Teklu Tessema, senior technical health director for the International Rescue Committee, or IRC.
Mohammed Mahdi, IRC director for East Sudan, told The Associated Press that funding cuts are forcing the closure of 36 IRC-supported facilities and sites, cutting off access to essential services for an estimated 473,700 people.
“A small number of facilities are able to keep running for a short period using other funding sources, but this bridge support is only expected to last through the end of September,” Mahdi said of facilities across Sudan.
Healthcare providers couldn’t find alternative funding needed to provide healthcare services after grants to many organizations in Sudan ended in June following the announcement of U.S. aid cuts last year, according to MSF. Some major European donors also decreased their aid spending.
The Um Rakuba camp in Gedaref State in eastern Sudan, which shelters around 17,000 displaced people, is now served by fewer than 10 aid organizations operating in and around the camp, down from about 35 in 2021, according to MSF.
The MSF-supported hospital there “is now the only lifeline left” for refugees and residents, said Fabrizio Locuratolo, MSF humanitarian affairs manager in the statement.
Ali Almohammed, MSF emergency health manager, warned that “serious disease outbreaks are already happening” in several parts of Sudan. He told the AP that measles reached a “major outbreak level” in Darfur, with approximately 75% of measles patients being unvaccinated.
Sudan is also experiencing cholera and malaria outbreaks.
Multiple attempts have been made to end the war, including peace talks. Most recently, the United States urged the U.N. to impose sanctions against the warring parties as a means of pressuring them to negotiate an end to the conflict.
FILE - A Sudanese girl receives an oral cholera vaccine during a vaccination campaign conducted by health ministry workers in Khartoum, Sudan, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali, File)
